August 30 (Daily reading: Ezekiel 13-15) As God was giving His message to the people through His prophets, there were many false prophets who were contradicting Him. Ezekiel wrote: “Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing” (13:3). God used the metaphor of a wall, first saying, “(You did not) build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the LORD of (13:4). The wall that needed to be built (that would stand) was confidence in God—looking to Him for security. They had not built a wall “to stand in the battle;” they had built a wall based on lies.
“They have misled My people by saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash” (13:10). This flimsy wall was not based on the foundation of God’s truth. To cover its weaknesses and flaws, plaster was used to give the appearance of stability. The plaster was only more lies to support a wall that had been built on falsehood to begin with. God told them through Ezekiel that when the storms came, the flimsy wall would fall. “I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare” (13:14). Spirituality based on lies will always be exposed by the truth of God’s word.
We all like to hear things that make us feel better. But good feelings based on lies will quickly disappear in the face of truth. We are building walls in America based on a foundation of untruth and covering them with a whitewash of politics and economic security. The false prophets followed “their own spirit” (13:3). Let us be guided by the Holy Spirit as we follow God’s word!
– Al Gary
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